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[Brittany Binler/The Daily Pennsylvanian] Penn School of Medicine students find out where they will do their residency work on Match Day 2006. 122 students were matched.

After years of carefully controlling their own educations, fourth-year medical students----- at Penn and across the country entrust their futures to a computer.

Graduating med students recently were assigned to the hospitals through which they will complete their residencies, post-graduation programs in which doctors train to gain the right to practice medicine on their own.

Medical student Caitlin Carr said her fiance has likened the match process to "the sorting hat from Harry Potter."

The resemblance to the popular books isn't hard to see.

Administrators drew names one by one as the students filed to the table, picked up the envelopes which contained their decisions and opened them back at their seats. Carr, the last chosen, won $122 as a result, a dollar for each medical student who matched.

Fourth-year medical student Amy Feldman was matched with the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, her first choice.

"You go down the list and people are at just awesome places," Feldman said. "If I were an administrator, I'd be pretty psyched."‹¨«

Other students agree.

"I don't know anyone that is unhappy," said Daniel Osei, a fourth-year Medical student who was matched for orthopedic surgery at his first choice, a Cornell University-affiliated orthopedic hospital.

Indeed, Wagner said Penn had only one medical-student "scramble," which means that a student failed to match with any school. When this happens, a student then must spend a frantic day calling programs which did not fill all their spots in the hopes of finding a place.

Scrambles can result when students apply to too few programs, which is why Penn administrators advise every Medical student individually before the application process begins.

But how much students must do to be fairly sure of a good placement depends on what field they plan to pursue.

Feldman, who plans to go into pediatrics, applied to just five or six programs. Osei, who is leaning toward orthopedic surgery, applied to 30.

"In ortho there are only three spots at a program, whereas CHOP takes 40," Feldman said.

Getting a residency in some surgical fields may also involve high-stress interviews.

Carr, who matched at a Washington University in St. Louis-affiliated radiology program, said her non-surgical interview focused on her personal attributes rather her grades.

"They try not to talk about [academics] much during the interviews because it comes across in the paper application,"‹¨« she said.

Some surgical specialties test dexterity by having applicants mold pieces of clay based on flat drawings or play the board game "Operation" with their left hands.

Regardless of the field, students said they felt the stress of an inflexible process. Applicants are contractually bound to attend the residency with which they are matched.

"There's always a chance that when you open up that envelope, what you've planned for the next four years could definitely change," Feldman said.

With the work of medical school over and their internships -- the first year of residency -- ahead, Penn medical students now have a brief respite.

"I pretty much have vacation until graduation, now," Carr said.

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